Ministry to decide on school closure in Johor

KUALA NERANG: The Education Ministry will decide by today if schools in Johor should remain closed due to the haze, which has already caused the cancellation of 21 flights from the Senai Inter­national Airport.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said it was monitoring the situation in Johor as well as Malacca and Negri Sembilan.

“If the Air Pollutant Index (API) reading does not drop, we will ask the state education department in Johor to close the schools,” he told reporters here yesterday.

Schools here are scheduled to reopen tomorrow after the one-week school holiday while classes will resume on Monday for Malacca and Negri Sembilan.

At the airport, some 1,000 travellers were affected when the flights were cancelled after visibility fell below 1km.

“Visibility was recorded between 50m and 300m at around 6.30am to 8.30am in the morning,” said the airport’s chief operations officer Noor Safura Suib, adding that only five domestic flights were given the greenlight to depart when the situation improved in the afternoon.

Some airlines, however, were considering departing later in the night, she said, adding that as at 5pm yesterday, visibility had climbed back to 6km.

Pasir Gudang in Johor recorded an API of 201 at 9am, which is in the very unhealthy category, before improving to 182 at 2pm.

As at 11am, the readings for Larkin and Kota Tinggi were 190 and 129.

Other areas showing unhealthy API levels were Balok Baru (159) and Indera Mahkota (136) in Pahang and Kemaman (153) and Paka (113) in Terengganu.

MetMalaysia spokesman Dr Hisham Mohd Anip said the haze was expected to make a comeback in Sarawak today as the winds shifted from southern Kalimantan to the eastern part of the state.

API levels, he said, were expected to gradually worsen in Kuching, Samarahan and Sri Aman.

Air quality in the worst hit regions of Johor, southern Pahang and Terengganu, said Dr Hisham, was predicted to remain the same until the end of the month.

“A slight haze is expected over all other states.

“MetMalaysia predicts API readings to improve in early October when inter-monsoon winds bring rains,” he said.

A wind change due to a cyclone, which would make landfall over eastern China either on Monday or Tuesday, was also expected to improve overall conditions.

In a statement, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre had detected 93 hotspots in Kalimantan and 41 in Sumatera.

A single hotspot was also detected in Kelantan.